Family's vigil awaits emergence of girl from coma

The minutes seem like hours for little Dallas Branum's family as they wait at her bedside, hoping she will pull through the coma she's been in since a near-deadly auto accident Monday.

Meeko, her favorite stuffed toy raccoon from the Disney movie "Pocahontas," is there to make her University Medical Center bed in the pediatric intensive care unit seem more familiar. Mom and dad are there day and night.

But still haunting them is the reality that the emergency lane Branum's mother pulled into while northbound on U.S. 95 just days ago didn't protect their car from being rear-ended by a rental truck.

"She's fighting," Karen Harris said of her young cousin, Dallas, a Dooley Elementary School student who just completed kindergarten.

"This is just so horrible. She is the sweetest little girl."

The family opened account number 055266003 at Bank of America on Thursday to collect donations being made to defray Dallas' medical costs.

Dallas and her mother, Kandace Branum, 34, and a family friend were on their way to visit Dallas' aunt at the Sunset Galleria Mall in Henderson when Kandace Branum pulled into the emergency lane between the Lake Mead Drive and Sunset Road exits about 4 p.m. after something in her contact lens started bothering her, Harris said.

"She'd pulled onto the right shoulder of the freeway when the car was hit," said Trooper Scott Flabi of the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Investigators determined that Michael J. McGuire, 53, of Las Vegas, was traveling between 60 and 65 mph when the Budget rental truck he was driving, described as a 1996 Isuzu, rammed the back end of the Branums' 1984 Toyota.

"The truck's driver claimed he was changing from the center lane to the right lane and that the (victims') car suddenly appeared. Apparently, though, he wasn't paying attention. The victims' car was totally in the shoulder and there was no evidence that the truck's driver tried to brake before the collision."

Flabi said McGuire owns a local furniture company and was making afternoon deliveries.

The case remains under investigation. No charges have been filed to date.

Dallas suffered critical brain injuries and her mother a concussion, authorities said. A third occupant in the Branums' car, David Riffel, 24, was treated at UMC and released Tuesday.

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